Wiltshire: Harrison & Swanborough

[Roger Horton]

A puzzling group of sheets from collectors during the 1970 in Wiltshire, all with very similar handwriting on the labels, often with the dates marked 'pressed':

B Harrison 9/1976: 376187
T D Harrison 1976-1978: 376477 (as T D Harrison B), 374733, 374810.
Joan Swanborough all 7/9/1976 (2 of which although labelled Wiltshire also
state Somerset Levels): 376413, 376369, 376600.

Both TD Harrison and Mrs Joan Swanborough were Member of Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. The latter became recorder for North Wiltshire (vc 7) for the four years until her death in 1981, and lived at Pew Hill, Chippenham. She contributed to 'Supplement to the Flora of Wiltshire' (1975) by LF Stearn, her predecessor as vc recorder.

Presumably the 'B' associated with Harrison is a sheet code, and Harrison is a single collector here. It seems strange that Mrs Swanborough would not know which of the Wiltshire vice-counties she was in, or whether it was, in fact, Somerset. Is it possible that all these labels are written by a third party? A brief obituary in BSBI News, April, 1982 [pdf] says that Mrs Swanborough and her husband died within 24 hours of each other in December 1981, and that LF Stearn passed away at the end of the same year. Perhaps this left WA&NHS with some problems in herbarium records.